George N. M. Posted February 8, 2022 Share Posted February 8, 2022 Steven, I will bet that of the thousands of folk on IFI from many countries around the world your avatar photo is the only one sporting a tie. You are going to couth us up. As a blacksmith and an attorney I have been teased that I forge in a business suit. I can say that I have never shown up in court in a leather apron. "By hammer and hand all arts do stand." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charles R. Stevens Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 I melt hard fire brick in my side blast charcoal forge... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenlynnhall Posted February 9, 2022 Author Share Posted February 9, 2022 7 hours ago, George N. M. said: Steven, I will bet that of the thousands of folk on IFI from many countries around the world your avatar photo is the only one sporting a tie. Ha! It’s the one I had (my day job is real estate) will update with an appropriate one when I can Preferably, working in my “smithy” lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frazer Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 13 hours ago, stevenlynnhall said: As for the hair drier it is a small travel one that on the low setting doesn’t seem to push out a whole lot of air. If that hair dryer has a "Cool Shot" button that turns off the heating elements I would recommend using some electrical tape to keep that pressed down. Running it with the heat going will burn out the little motor in short order. I used a hair dryer for quite a while when I was starting out. One without the cool button lasted a week or two and the other survived about a year before it eventually gave up the ghost. I ended up switching to a squirrel cage furnace blower with a speed controller and finally to a hand crank. Volume of air aside, hair dryers are loud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 One thing I really enjoy about the Southwest; "Dress Up Clothes" means clean jeans, a bolo tie and polished boots. My avatar is very outdated, I look more like Santa Claus's evil twin brother Skippy these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Sells Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 To be honest , last I saw you Thomas, you looked more like Gimli from LoTR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 I'd have said Glóin, Gimli's father. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 Steve; I'll take that as a compliment! I'm getting whiter beard and shinier pate. My wife put up a "cheat sheet" on the fridge that goes through how to identify the Dwarves by hair and beard; I'll check out Gloin...Hopefully I'll braid my beard for Quad-State this year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JHCC Posted February 9, 2022 Share Posted February 9, 2022 Shouldn't be too difficult; just forge some bits of pipe: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenlynnhall Posted February 11, 2022 Author Share Posted February 11, 2022 Not sure where I should post an update…. but, today was a new lesson in failed design! the biggest flaw I found in the “washtub” / old grill to forge conversion that I made is it’s REALLY difficult to heat up the handle of longer material. My rebar practice piece is slowly becoming a fire poker. Figured that would be a good project since the big screwdriver still isn’t long enough… but the way my forge is designed I can’t get much further up than about 8” or so. I now asleep the upside of a flat bed of sand and I side addressed blower pipe into a mound of charcoal blocked off by some firebricks. This will be tomorrow’s goal! As I did use up about $10 in charcoal and still not done. On the good side, I got to do some work around the horn making the hook. That was fun!!! Oh, and most importantly I learned 3 and 4 pound hammers are not for wusses (and I am a wuss) so I bought me a 2lb hammer and it worked SO much better. Also, for everyone that’s ready to tell me to take some lessons… I have contacted my local chapter and am in the process of setting that up. Thanks again for everything folks, Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThomasPowers Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 Remember that the workpiece should go into the hot spot *horizontally*. If the hot spot can't be reached by the workpiece when horizontal then the forge is not designed correctly! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenlynnhall Posted February 11, 2022 Author Share Posted February 11, 2022 Exactly! Lesson learned for sure… will be upgrading tomorrow…. Wish I would have found this forum before I built it. The design I think is fine for small stock. But the stock can’t be longer than the sunken area!!! the end goal WAS just making knives, but now I want to make all sorts of other things too. Also, I will be softening the edges on that anvil. I can now see all the little lines cut into the metal and they are harder to remove than the “rebar” texture!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Irondragon Forge ClayWorks Posted February 11, 2022 Share Posted February 11, 2022 36 minutes ago, stevenlynnhall said: Not sure where I should post an update…. I struggled with this until a member advised me to think what I was posting about. If it's a solid fuel forge, there is a section for that. If I'm talking about heat treating some steel there is a section for that and so on. Took me a while to stop posting everything in General Blacksmithing. PS: This is posted not just for you, but for any new members who may run across this post. (I think you are doing just fine). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevenlynnhall Posted February 11, 2022 Author Share Posted February 11, 2022 29 minutes ago, Irondragon ForgeClay Works said: I struggled with this until a member advised me to think what I was posting about. If it's a solid fuel forge, there is a section for that. If I'm talking about heat treating some steel there is a section for that and so on. Took me a while to stop posting everything in General Blacksmithing. PS: This is posted not just for you, but for any new members who may run across this post. (I think you are doing just fine). Hey thanks, wasn’t sure if I should keep it in the same thread for easy continuation (also, kind of a progress record for myself as well), or in the appropriate section. From now on I will do that. I appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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